US Congressmen war crimes allegation petition: Sri Lanka’s dismal failure in public diplomacy
Daya Gamage – US National Correspondent Asian Tribune
Washington, D.C. 31 August (Asiantribune.com):
If Asian Tribune reveals to you that one of the signatories to the 9 August (2010) ‘war crimes’ petition forwarded to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by 57 US Congressmen did not have the faintest idea of Pol/Mil developments in Sri Lanka during its battle against separatist Tamil Tigers and the resultant scenario something is wrong somewhere in Sri Lanka’s overseas public diplomacy and strategic communication which is most vital at this state to combat vicious global propaganda against it.
The seriousness is that the organizers of this petition harnessed the ignorance of this Congresswoman to sign it on the pretext of promoting human rights in a Third World nation which happened to be Sri Lanka which is battling misinterpretations, blatant lies, misrepresentations and half-truths arising out of its battle against the separatist Tamil Tigers and resultant human rights, crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide issues.
The significance of this particular Congresswoman placing her signature in a document that did not emerged from the US House of Representatives but elsewhere is that she is the chairperson of the Democratic Black Caucus, a caucus that pro-LTTE professionals in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere endeavored in recent months (and years) to bring parallels to the plight of the African-American (12%) community here and the Tamils (12%) in Sri Lanka.
Had Sri Lanka’s overseas public diplomacy and strategic communication was aimed to make the members of this Black Democratic Caucus knowledgeable of the untainted scenario and developments in Sri Lanka the Democratic Congresswoman from the State of California Barbara Lee would have thought twice before placing her signature on a document entering in to a dialogue about issues in hand.
The Asian Tribune summoned the assistance of a leading Democratic Party official in the State of Nevada to contact several of his party Congressmen well known to him to inquire about their participation in this letter which accused Sri Lanka of war crimes and human rights abuses to ascertain if they knew up close of what went on and is going in Sri Lanka vis-à-vis its military battle against the separatist Tamil Tigers and its post-war focus on the socio-economic development of minority Tamil regions in the north and east of the country.
Congresswoman Babara Lee expressed her total ignorance of developments that occured before the defeat of the Tamil Tigers, the circumstances that led to the outfit’s defeat and the measures taken by the Government of Sri Lanka to the Nevada Democratic Party official Sanje Sedera. Mr. Sedera is the head of the Asian-American Democratic Caucus of the Clerk County in Las Vegas and the vice chairman of the Nevada State Democratic Party.
Mr. Sedera conveyed to Asian Tribune that he discussed the Sri Lanka issue with Congresswoman Babara Lee and was convinced she had a very faint knowledge about Sri Lankan issues.
The drafters and organizers of the Congressional petition used their public affairs/public diplomacy/strategic communication skills which Sri Lanka unfortunately lacks in its overseas diplomatic endeavors to identify the most liberal House Members to get the signatures.
Out of the 57 House Members 52 were Democrats, only 5 were Republicans. Asian Tribune identified 10 of those Democrats as the most liberal Members of the Congress, according to congressional voting records.
The Democratic Congressman representing a district in California Brad Sherman is not included among the ten as he has depicted himself a life-time member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or the Tamil Tigers who until their defeat in May 2009 fought for a separate independent state in Sri Lanka.
The eight Democratic Party Congressman from Nevada, California and two other states were not signatories to this ‘war crimes’ letter to Secretary Clinton as they were adequately briefed in the past eighteen months about the Sri Lanka situation by concerned Sri Lankans in Nevada and California initiated by Democratic Party official Sanje Sedera and others independent of Sri Lankan diplomatic corps in the United States.
The Asian Tribune reported the sentiments expressed by Democratic Party Congresswoman Dina Titus who said on more than one occasion that there is a distinct difference between Tiger terrorism and rights of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.
The Asian Tribune is well aware, through its own investigative efforts and with the assistance of those who maintain contacts with congressional staff, that the ten identified ‘most liberal’ Democratic Congressmen had never received any cogent explanations about existing issues that confront Sri Lanka for them to pay more attention to broaden their knowledge so that they were in a position to question anyone who bring up those issues.
Hardcore liberals, and even marginal liberals, in contrast to conservatives are serious about human rights, crimes against humanity and related issues. The House and the Senate are currently influenced or controlled by liberals who constantly bash the previous Bush-Chaney administration for its blatant violation of human rights, prisoner abuses and torture. In contrast the Republican conservatives justify those acts like ‘waterboarding’ as essential for the national security of the U.S.
These liberal congressmen should have been on the top of the list for Sri Lankan diplomats to have a close cogent rapport instead of exchanging pleasantries.
At a time Sri Lanka is facing global criticism of human rights abuses the External Affairs Ministry should have focused on deploying experienced and capable personnel who have the knowledge of public diplomacy and strategic communication to cogently explain issues that have made global by those who are unfriendly toward Sri Lanka.
The critical letter to the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dated August 9, 2010 is a very clear indication that Sri Lanka has failed in its overseas diplomatic effort leave alone whether the diplomatic corps has any knowledge of what public diplomacy and strategic communication mean.
Because of this failure someone else outside of the US Congressional portals prepared the text of the letter, initiated to get the signatures identifying the most liberal House Members and induced them ‘in the name of promoting human rights’ to place their signatures which gave global publicity to the effect that the United States Congress has taken up the issue of investigation in to the war crimes, crimes against humanity and human rights abuses of Sri Lanka seriously.
The Sri Lankan diplomats and their External Affairs Ministry ‘sages’ had no knowledge of the ‘mind set’ of ‘liberals’ who are influential in the Obama administration, beside exchanging pleasantries how to cogently approach them recognizing the uphill battle Sri Lankan administration has to combat global unfavorable publicity that have/may affect external relations.
They have even failed to identify forces outside the portals of the US Congress who are capable of manipulating the liberals using issues such as human rights that are close to their hearts.
And, who manipulated?
American diplomatic missions overseas do business in a very strange way, but very professional, in the interests of the United States. Every couple of years these diplomatic missions prepare, after extensive research, analysis, investigation and discussions, a Potential Leaders List which identifies anyone in the host country who could be in influential position in the future. This correspondent in his previous life in the US State Department had up close and personal knowledge of the preparation of the Potential Leaders List, and the identification of host country personnel as ‘potential leaders’ is dead accurate.
Did Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry (or the previous Foreign Ministry) and its overseas diplomatic corps used their common sense to identify a man named Christoph Koettl and his established rapport with US Congressmen?
For the information of the Asian Tribune readers, and through them for the knowledge of the ‘sages’ of the External Affairs Ministry in Colombo and its overseas diplomatic corps Christoph Koettl is the Project Manager for Amnesty International USA’s Science for Human Rights Project, which utilizes geospatial technologies for documenting human rights violations and preventing conflict.
Most importantly, he coordinates Amnesty’s responses to international human rights crises like the recent conflicts in Sri Lanka and Gaza.
He previously worked for an organization that works on Jewish-Christian relations in Vienna and volunteered in various positions at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Christoph studied in Austria, the Netherlands, Italy and the U.S. He holds an MA in History and Political Science from the University of Vienna and an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His research interests are in international human rights, conflict management, early warning / early intervention and crisis mapping.
It is this Christoph Koettl who drafted and initiated the Congressional Letter against Sri Lanka as additional pressure on Clinton-State Department.
August 11 Mr. Koettl attached the following entry in Amnesty International’s Human Rights Now web blog:
(Begin Text) I remember vividly my recent encounter with Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister, who angrily dismissed any concerns regarding alleged war crimes committed during Sri Lanka’s civil war. Unfortunately for the minister, and luckily for the human rights movement, I am not the only one who is concerned about serious human rights violations that were committed by both the government and the Tamil Tigers during the final stage of the conflict. International concerns regarding alleged war crimes are not fading. To the contrary, this week new pressure is building up to ensure true accountability. This week, fifty-seven eight members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, urging her to press for an independent international inquiry into the alleged war crimes. The congressional action is gaining considerable media attention, with stories run by AFP, AP, BBC and Al Jazeera. (End Text)
The following entry by Mr. Koettl in the Human Rights Now web portal clearly discloses the invisible hand behind the petition:
(Begin Text) Update (July 30): Our action is working! We almost got one new co-signer per hour within the first 24 hours of the start of our action, collecting 22 additional signatures. Even more important, due to the traction we got on this topic over the last days,
the deadline to sign on was extended to next Friday, August 6Thursday, August 5! Please keep urging your representative to sign and spread the word. Thanks to everyone who has already done so. (End Text)
See the manner in which he organized the signatures to the petition:
(Begin Text) Here‘s how you can take action:
1. Take action online, urging your House representative to sign on to the letter.
2. Call the Congressional switchboard at 202 224-3121 and ask for your representative. Tell him about the letter and encourage him to support it.
3. If your representative has a Facebook page or twitter account, encourage him through these platforms to sign on (for an example how to do this on twitter, follow our lead). (End Text)
His instruction is: Follow our lead!
- Asian Tribune -
Comments
Double Standard of US Legislature
The comments of some are to the point. When you look back now we have a better focused Sri Lankan diplomatic community than we had during previous regimes. The LTTE would not have got that powerful if not for our own diplomatic community which fostered them. Take a look at Moorthy as head of UK mission, Balasubramanium as the Head of French Mission, Lakshmi Naganathan as the Head of German Mission in 1983 the damage done. At least we know the present diplomats are not actively participating in LTTE propaganda effort.
However we have to be mindful of this kind of vendetta unleashed against a democratically elected government. To keep an eye on all these activities may not be feasible with all that money machine of Tamil Diaspora. This is a classic description of a terrorist movement. They have to be lucky only once, and the government should be on alert all the time.
Dayan Jayathilake is no hero that he played a double game. We need educated people of all communities without bias explain to the world how democracies can be safeguarded against terrorist activities. As for most American politicians, one can buy them over a drink. Some of them are merely invited for a reception is bombarded with LTTE propaganda to drive a bias point of view. With the majority Tamils living in the Western hemisphere it will be difficult for the government to confront every sling shot made by the Diaspora.
Sri Lanka's PR skill is far
Sri Lanka's PR skill is far weaker than that of Col Gadaffi, even if we overlook the odourless fact of his breaking wind in a TV interview, to say the least. The folks who run the foreign ministry think they are doing a great job by wearing suit and tie and then issuing statesments in the most boring form - using well-hackneyed phrases and cliche:no-one wants to listen to or read the useless stuff; The foreign ministry can't even reply to the French foreign minister by forcing him to look around in his own backyard about Roma Expulsion, before messing around with the affairs of a sovereign country - as a form of defence. Our fellows are good at playing to the local gallery on the convenient assumption that the global audience is as stupid as the former. If the authorities keep ignoring the realities on the ground as if either they didn't exit or they didn't care about them, it is just self-deception in the most destructive degree. Unfortunately, this form of suicidal attitude one day will lead to the arrest of our beloved war heroes who rid the country of terror, on foreign soil - and at a time we least expect. Need examples? Here are some: Zippi Livini was scared of visiting London as Israel's foreign minister; Donald Rumsfeld could not visit Berlin as the Defence secretary of the US for a Nato meeting; Kurt Waldheim could not visit America as the head of the UN; General Pinnochet was arrested in London while on a shopping trip, even after the country came to terms with his legacy and was kept in detention for months. These are giants in the global political scene; ours are minnows compared to them. We can only hope this issue is addressed by skillful folks not by diplomatically-impotent bureaucrats.
Diplomatically impotent bureaucrats
Dear Last Minute,
You have used the correct words to describe some our diplomats who are spending their retirement or looking after family interests in the countries they are posted to. As regards their PR skills I can say that they know only to play the role of Puppet Royale and the public gets what they deserve by electing Puppet Masters without using head and keep on paying taxes for maintaining the arts and crafts of diplomatic puppetry.
What Last Minute has said is very true
Hardcore liberals, and even marginal liberals, in contrast to conservatives are serious about human rights, crimes against humanity and related issues.
Ah the usual load of racist hypocrites then.
Anyway what Last Minute has said is very true.
Our so called Diplomats and Foreign Office is made up of white worshipping morons who tremble when they see white skin and cannot speak up in defence of their country.
They do absolutely nothing other than suck money out of Sri Lanka and try and improve their childrens education prospects. Some use a diplomatic posting to even settle down, akin to a sort of immigration process. Some go on to attack Sri Lanka and join our enemies, even engaging in business with the LTTE in the West while still serving as diplomats.
We have an absolutely useless Foreign Service that does nothing.
It is disgusting.
It is true their are some very good diplomats, but they just lack a certain level of "crunch" and ability still. Dayan J proved to be the best, he knew exactly how to run things and how to behave as a diplomat for this country (making friends, creating allies, attacking the double standards of a nation with clever speeches full of wit etc. He knew how to do diplomacy and work in foreign relations. It is a shame however he also used his position to flaunt his backward ideology. Nevertheless the treatment he received –being sacked- was wrong).
It is amazing we survived against the well run well orchestrated campaign by the West and Tamil racists during the 3 years of war.
Keep up the good work
Recently, I have followed some of the brilliant work, which has done by Nevada Democratic Party official Sanje Sedera in getting the TRUE picture against Sri Lanka war crimes accusations to US political domain. Keep up the great work Mr. Sedera. This is an eye opener for many Sri Lankans living in U.S. These intellects should be a good role model for Sri Lankan embassy officials in Washington DC.